Weekly Standard: The War Beyond Afghanistan

President Barack Obama attends a meeting with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, on May 2, 2012 in Kabul, Afghanistan. The U.S. and Afghan Presidents signed a long-term strategic partnership outlining their cooperation following the 2014 withdrawal of NATO and allied forces.

"Would that it were so. Would that it were so that the Sept. 11 attacks marked the beginning of a period whose end is soon approaching. The president thinks this, and the American people would like it to be so. It's an attractive view, with the great political merit of offering hope of a relatively early and clear end to 'this time of war.' And it's not an intellectually incoherent view: The 9/11 attack was launched by al Qaida based in Afghanistan. Our war aim has been and is to destroy al Qaida and prevent the use of Afghanistan as a base for future attacks. When we've achieved this objective, the war will end.

"But what if the reality is that, from Pakistan in the east to Tunisia in the west, and most visibly now in places such as Iran and Yemen and Somalia — and not just in Afghanistan — we are at war with political Islamism, a movement whose ability to find state sponsors and enablers is not limited to just one country or two? ...

"Unfortunately, the war in which we are engaged won't end with peace in, or withdrawal from, Afghanistan."